I have a direct box collection that has or has had most of the DI's we hear about. Jensen, Reddi, Carnhill, TAB, Sescom, Neve, Tube Works, etc.. But, I just bought a very interesting hand made DI transformer on ebay sold by the owner of FAB microphones in England--he winds his own transformers. Most transformers only differ in insertion loss and sound mostly the same, but the FAB DI-1 has a markedly warm sound with really nice treble response. Smoother than the Carnhill that is used by BAE and Telefunken. Input impedance is over 100K. I'm hard to please, but the FAB is actually a different animal. The lows are pretty lush, and it has a great sound all around. I'm surprised to see a new player in the transformer winding world that has been dominated in the USA by Jensen and Cinemag mostly. This transformer is bigger than most and pretty heavy. The only issue is it isn't faraday shielded like the Jensen and Carnhill offerings. This makes it more likely to hum if the DI is placed on top of some gear with a large tranny in it. Keep it away from the top of your rig and you're good. A staight up, very good sounding transformer. I posted here about it because it's like the old, really sought after transformers used when direct boxes were quite a custom thing and not commercially available yet, except the FAB doesn't have the reduced treble caused by the low input impedance of the vintage transformers. I just installed it in an old DI box I have.
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